Linkin Park Wants You Dead!

Every song on the Linkin Park pretty much plays out the same way. Imagine a scene in a Lifetime movie about teen suicide. A teen, crying, yells ‘you don’t understand’ then slams the door to his room. He then puts any one of these songs on repeat, cries a little more, then hangs himself. Seriously,when I hear these songs, I see swinging bodies. It’s just that melancholy and depressing.

I have a theory. I think Mike Shinoda has hijacked Linkin Park. Since he was the one that never really played a musical instrument (he’s the rapper) he’s come up with his own simple guitar and two finger keyboard parts. He then writes similar tempo songs that he can rap and sometimes sing to. Chester Bennington then comes in and sings the part that Shinoda simply cannot sing. Guitarist Brad Delson is almost non-existent on this album (again). This is just theory, but the signs seem to be all there (If this is the case, I wouldn’t expect the band to be around much longer, but that’s another blog).

You might think, well if he doesn’t have anything good to say, then why say anything at all. It’s simple, I, like many previous fans WAS emotionally invested in the band. I find it interesting that Mike Shinoda wanted fans to sit and listen to the album in groups, because that’s the LAST thing I would do. In fact, I can’t imagine sitting down and listening to this album as a whole ever again.

I kind of think this band is just done. Think about their career trajectory, two EPIC albums, then a crappy remix album, then a live album, then a remix album with a rapper, then a little bit of a comeback album, then a highly experimental album and now this (I think I got that order right, if not, no matter, it shows how spotty their output has been). This album commits the worst sin of all, it’s friggin’ boring.

The lead off track on the album offers some false hope. It sounds very much like old Linkin Park. There’s also track four which lets Chester rage a bit, that track is, coincidentally or not, the shortest one on the album at about 2:20.

In radio songs go through a process. The shortest way to explain it is if a song is super popular it hangs around for a bit after its big moment in the sun. If it’s still popular a few years after its moment in the sun it makes it to a ‘classic’ type category. The bottom line is, even if you like some of these songs now, you won’t hear them on the radio after their ‘moment in the sun’. None of them are good enough to become ‘classics” meaning, you won’t hear any of these tracks a year after they’ve been on the radio.

To wrap it up, if “Hybrid Theory” was Linking Park on ten, and “A Thousand Suns” was Linkin Park at a one, this album barely musters up a two. I’m bummed.

If you’re a casual fan download “Lost In the Echo”
If you’re a big fan download “Lies Greed Misery”
If you’re a super fan, call the suicide hotline. You have other reasons to live.